


Hindsight

by Skylark



Category: Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fashion & Models, Alternate Universe - Magicians, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-20
Updated: 2011-09-20
Packaged: 2018-09-03 02:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8692162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Skylark
Summary: The first thing that catches his eye, Kyuhyun remembers later, is how incredibly tall he is. (A collection of never-to-be-finished QMi WIPs.)





	1. International Fashion Student AU

**Author's Note:**

> It takes me a few tries before I figure out what I want a fic to say. I thought you'd like to see some of these unfinished first attempts. **These are never going to be finished** —what you see is what you get, unfortunately, but you will see bits and pieces of them scattered throughout fics that I'll be publishing in the future (I list them as descendants, idk).
> 
> These are all _really_ rough drafts; I've edited them enough to be readable, but besides that, I haven't polished them at all. A bit of explanation is at the end of each one.

The first thing that catches his eye, Kyuhyun remembers later, is how incredibly tall he is. As Kyuhyun gets closer, he sees nice clothing, flailing gestures, a desperate look in the man's eyes. Closer still, he sees a book in his hands.  
  
As Kyuhyun passes him, the man says something. It's so heavily accented that it takes him a moment to translate it— _help_.  
  
Kyuhyun stops.  
  
When he turns, the man's eyes light up, uncertainly.  
  
Kyuhyun sighs. “Do you need help?” he asks.  
  
The man comes over, ducking his head in gratitude. He opens his book and points.  
  
Kyuhyun reaches for the book, looking at the man for permission. The man hands it over at once. It's a map of Manhattan; the man points at a red star in the middle of a street.  
  
Tourist, then. “NoHo?” he asks.  
  
The man shrugs. Kyuhyun looks down at the map, then up at the man. “Train,” he says. “You need to take the subway.” Zhou Mi nods. “Right now you're here—” he points and begins to explain, but after a few moments he realizes that this man is never going to make it that far by himself. Kyuhyun stops talking, raises a hand, and thinks for a moment.  
  
Ah, hell. He doesn't have anything else to do, anyway.  
  
He returns the book. The man's hopeful expression fades. “Come on,” he says, waving a hand. “I'll take you there.”  
  
The man beams and reaches down for his bags, nearly tripping over himself as he follows. When he catches up, Kyuhyun points to himself. “I'm Kyuhyun,” he says.  
  
The man smiles. “Zhou Mi.”  
  
\--  
  
Zhou Mi can speak English, haltingly, and with occasional help from his iPhone's translation app, Kyuhyun learns that Zhou Mi had been trying to get there himself before several wrong turns had led him to Penn Station. “Where are you from?” Kyuhyun asks, shouting to be heard over the subway's shriek.  
  
“China.”  
  
“Tourist?”  
  
Zhou Mi shakes his head. “Student.”  
  
“An international student?” Zhou Mi nods. “Which university?”  
  
“NYU,” he says.  
  
“Huh,” Kyuhyun says. “Me too.”  
  
\--  
  
Kyuhyun is growing increasingly afraid for Zhou Mi's jaw. And his wallet.  
  
Kyuhyun walks fast, hands in his pockets; it's a breezy spring afternoon and he's underdressed. Zhou Mi, however, keeps slowing down at every boutique storefront they pass. “Zhou Mi,” he finally says. The man looks at him as if he'd forgotten that Kyuhyun was there. Kyuhyun jerks his head; “We're almost there. You can look around later.”  
  
Zhou Mi gives the storefront a last, mournful look and tears his gaze away. Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow as he collects his suitcases off the sidewalk and walks towards him.  
  
“You shouldn't shop there, anyway,” Kyuhyun says. Zhou Mi looks at him curiously. “There are a lot of second-hand stores around here that'll probably be better for you. Those are for tourists. You're not a tourist, right?” Kyuhyun asks, because Zhou Mi's too fashionably dressed to be a tourist, but with the way he keeps craning his neck to stare at everything at once, he's not quite sure.  
  
Zhou Mi laughs. “Fashion student,” he repeats patiently. “Are you, also?”  
  
“No,” he said, “Computer Science. My girlfriend shops a lot, though.”  
  
“Ah,” Zhou Mi says, nodding.  
  
NoHo is pretty in the spring. It's too cold for the trees to have leaves, but the first crocuses are peeping out of the window boxes, and the low townhouses that line the streets have enough charm on their own. Zhou Mi looks delighted; Kyuhyun is more busy trying to navigate the crowds of people and the uneven sidewalk.  
  
“It's very different from Beijing,” Zhou Mi says.  
  
“I bet.” Kyuhyun casts a glance back. “Is that where you're from?”  
  
“It's—” Zhou Mi gestures with his hands. “—very, very busy,” he says. “Not like this.”  
  
Kyuhyun snorts. “You're just not in the right place. You should see Times Square. There are so many people that they've practically closed the streets to cars now.”  
  
“Times Square!” Zhou Mi seems delighted. Kyuhyun smiles.  
  
“Are you planning on sightseeing?”  
  
“I'm already sightseeing,” Zhou Mi replies.  
  
\--  
  
“I've never been in here,” Kyuhyun admits. They're both standing in front of the international dorm. “Do you have your ID yet?” Zhou Mi nods and pulls it out of his wallet.  
  
“I'll help you move your stuff in,” he says.  
  
Zhou Mi shakes his head. “No, you've already been so kind,” he says. “I'm sure you're busy.”  
  
“Actually, I'm not,” Kyuhyun says.  
  
Zhou Mi smiles in a way that implies disbelief.  
  
“I'm serious,” Kyuhyun says. He winces at the memory. “My girlfriend kicked me out of the apartment. I didn't exactly have time to grab anything.” Zhou Mi stares at him. Kyuhyun shuffles his feet and turns away. “Yeah, never mind,” he mutters. “Good luck moving in, I guess.”  
  
Zhou Mi taps Kyuhyun on the shoulder before he can leave and shoves a large purse into his hands when he turns.  
  
\--  
  
Zhou Mi is sharing an apartment-style dorm with four other students: Heechul, his roomate, has neon-red hair, Ryeowook doesn't seem to believe that they don't need any help, Siwon has a firm handshake, and Sungmin isn't there.  
  
“How did you carry all that?” Kyuhyun asks in disbelief once they've dropped everything onto Zhou Mi's side of the room. Heechul is perched on his bed, watching the proceedings with curiosity.  
  
Zhou Mi is opening the first suitcase and clothing balloons out over the edges. “I'm strong,” he says with a cocky grin, and flexes an arm to prove it. Kyuhyun and Heechul both snort.  
  
“Do you like cats?” Heechul asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Simin's [fic about travel](http://pistachiosky.livejournal.com/2983.html) and Aronnax's [fic that took place in NYC](http://aronnax.livejournal.com/3201.html). This fic has three descendants; an [NYC AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/268812), a gondolier AU (still in progress), and a [post-apocalyptic AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/268812). As for a plot, my notes were "Zhou Mi lives with Heechul, Ryeowook, Sungmin, and Siwon??? Henry just hangs out at their dorm a lot. Or roomates with Kyuhyun? Donghae and Kyuhyun are friends. Eunhyuk is Donghae's roomate. No pairings but QMi?" And later on, Kyuhyun was going to be allergic to cats and the cats were going to love Zhou Mi and live in his room _all the time_ and make Kyuhyun miserable. And Zhou Mi was going to go back to China and Kyuhyun was going to pine a lot and I was going to fix it somehow, but I don't remember how anymore.


	2. The Prestige AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _The Prestige_ is an awesome movie about rival magicians.

Cards flicker beneath his fingers as he stares out across the gathering crowd, a smile on his lips, glossed with a veneer of falseness. He sets the deck down, flips a card into the air; catches it, reveals it to the person beside him. The person takes it, amazed; he cocks his head back, tiny smile widening, and gets to his feet. The audience bursts into applause.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My original prompt from LJ user applesnapple412 was "Kyuhyun eating paper". That + [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km1susp7haI) led somehow to this. I had a lot of ideas for this one, actually, but they all came to me at the worst time/place possible, and I'd forgotten them by the time I found a pen and paper! I remember something about a sunset and Zhou Mi and Kyuhyun making out in a darkened alley after the rain when everything is still dripping wet and Zhou Mi releasing a cloud of doves from his hands while Kyuhyun watches from the wings of the stage. That's it.


	3. College AU

There's a person in Kyuhyun's bed. There's a person in Kyuhyun's bed and he's never seen him before.  
  
Kyuhyun drops his backpack on the floor, loudly. The man doesn’t move. Kyuhyun casts a glance at his roomate who’s sleeping in his own bed across the room, snoring lightly.  
  
He sighs and rubs his face before he wanders over to his bed. "Hey," he says, gently pushing the stranger's shoulder. When there's no response, he rolls his eyes and shakes harder. _"Hey."_  
  
The motion manages to roll the man onto his back, making his long limbs splay out over the edges of his small mattress. Kyuhyun flinches when a hand smacks against his thigh, and his hand jerks back.  
  
He looks nice enough, Kyuhyun supposes. His hair looks a little too long and his nose is too big, but Kyuhyun's not inclined to be charitable to a man who's taken over his bed at one a.m.   
  
Kyuhyun reaches out again, hesitantly, and pokes the man's nose. The man makes a soft noise but shows no signs of waking.  
  
Kyuhyun heaves a sigh and turns away, picking up his laptop and a few other items and stuffing them into his fallen backpack. He heaves his back over one shoulder as he gets to his feet. "You better be gone when I get back," he mutters. Across the room, Heechul snores in response.  
  
He flips his phone open as he opens the door. "Donghae?" he says after a moment. "Could I stay over toni..." his voice fades as the door shuts behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first attempt at writing something for LJ user misura but I ditched it in favor of writing the [NYC AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/268812). This was a more generic college AU where Zhou Mi's friend Heechul lived in the next room over but Zhou Mi was drunk and so got lost, obviously. The only other scenes I remember are Kyuhyun running into Zhou Mi in the library and Mimi apologizing by taking him out for lunch, and (later on, when they were already paired) the two of them half-running down an iced-over sidewalk on a very steep hill because they're both late to class and clutching at each other and trying not to fall and die. This fic's descendant is a college AU where Zhou Mi is a bartender and Kyuhyun is lonely; that's still in progress.


	4. With Honors (Post-SJ not-AU)

There isn't a lot, Zhou Mi realizes, that he's planned for after leaving SM. He's made enough headway in the field that he doesn't think he'll ever stop singing, but there's a lot more out there. He could be a model, or an actor, or an MC. He could start working on the personal life he's really never had while he was an idol.

In the end, the first thing he does is go back to college.

\--

Emma Watson, he heard, quit Brown because she couldn't stand the unwanted attention, but his stalkers aren't too bad, really. He's never really wanted a normal life, anyway.

He realizes, however, that he didn't much miss core requirements, and that he's a little too old to blend in with the typical college crowd. So he takes evening courses and is famous on the side.

"You idiot," Kyuhyun tells him over the phone. "You could just take the courses online."

Zhou Mi laughs. "It's not that. I don't just want a degree."

"You want to be nineteen again?" Kyuhyun says wryly.

"Maybe." It would be nice to be able to start over, after all.

\--

"The problem," he says, "is that the chairs are too small."

"Not the workload?" Kyuhyun says. "Not the stalker fangirls waiting outside your classroom? Just the chairs."

"Just the chairs," he agrees.

"Yeah, well, the offer still stands," Kyuhyun says. "If you need any help—"

"Okay, okay," Zhou Mi says. "I got through college the first time without you, you know."

\--

Kyuhyun sends him two copies of his first solo album, both signed: _To Zhou Mi, my biggest fan._ Zhou Mi calls him to thank him and Kyuhyun says, "You should come visit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of two flashfics that I wrote for the [QMi chat](http://qmibao.livejournal.com/148106.html). We were given a prompt and only ten minutes to write. (Prompt for this fic: "Graduation"). This fic is forever incomplete because of the time limit we had, and reposted with minimal editing.


	5. Storm Front (apocalyptic AU)

Kyuhyun opens bleary eyes and wonders why he's awake. He contemplates the dark room for a few moments before he realizes the change: he's engulfed by a deep, oppressive silence.  
  
Good, he thinks, maybe I can actually get some _rest_ for once, and allows the pull of exhaustion to pull him back into a deep, dreamless sleep.  
  
\--  
  
(The thing is, there's no such thing as a dreamless sleep. write a dream here oh god what was I going to say again  
  
  
\--  
  
He wakes up disoriented by how rested he is. He yawns hugely, stretches his arms up until his joints crack, and squints, trying to see. It's still dark—completely dark—and he has no idea what time it is. The silence is still there, thick and heavy like a blanket.  
  
His cell phone tells him that it's two days later, 2:00PM, and that he has no reception. He stares at horror at the time ticks to 2:01 and is bolting up off the couch before he realizes what he's doing. He stumbles through the dark, feeling for a wall, and slams into the door with a stifled curse as he bangs his cheek against the wood. He wrestles with the doorknob for a moment before he figures out how to unlock it, and bolts into the hallway.  
  
It's dark, still, and the silence is starting to become eerie. He shouts, but is answered only by his own echo.  
  
He shivers, and raises his cell phone to try and light the gloom. The weak light illuminates dirty white tile and racks of costumes. He creeps forward, shining the weak light at the walls, the ceiling, seeing empty rooms through the open doors. There's no one. The only company he has are his footsteps and his growing sense of fear.  
  
He finds stairs and ascends them on tiptoe, holding his breath until, suddenly, he comes up against a wall of rubble.  
  
 _Oh my God,_ he says, and then louder, _Hello? Is anyone there?!_  
  
Silence.  
  
\--  
  
5:15 PM, no reception, three bars left.  
  
Kyuhyun's hands are bloody after hours of moving jagged rocks and sharp-edged metal, twisted into pieces he doesn't want to think about. He's too exhausted to be afraid. Instead, desperation pulses through him in time with his heartbeat, driving him on.   
  
He straightens for a moment, swiping sweat away from his eyes, before he gives another hoarse yell. He doesn't expect an answer but waits anyway, hoping.  
  
Then, faint over his own heavy breathing, he hears scraping.  
  
\--  
  
At 10:00 PM his hand breaks through into the air above, and is immediately clutched in a hard grip.  
  
\--  
  
Kyuhyun scrambles forward, too tired to stand, as Zhou Mi half-collapses through the gap.  
  
 _I thought you were dead,_ Zhou Mi says, wild and hoarse, and Kyuhyun gasps _Me too_ and kisses him hard enough to bruise.  
  
\--  
  
Kyuhyun stands the next morning amidst the rubble that was once Myeongdong.  
  
Zhou Mi takes his hand and says, _I'm sorry,_ in that baffled quiet way that says he's at a loss for words.   
  
Kyuhyun turns and buries his head in Zhou Mi's dusty shirt. Zhou Mi's arm comes up around him, pulling him closer.  
  
Maybe Kyuhyun understands the silence a little better now. Maybe there's nothing left to say.  
  
\--  
  
Zhou Mi doesn't know.  
  
 _A nuclear blast, maybe,_ he says.  
  
 _But then why isn't there help,_ Kyuhyun says. _Where is everyone?_  
  
Zhou Mi makes a helpless fluttering gesture, reaches up to take Kyuhyun's hand and clamber over another hill of rubble. _I don't know,_ he says. _There were air sirens, and a flash of light. We ran to the basement, and—_  
  
 _So there_ are _other people,_ Kyuhyun gasps, _Where are they now?_  
  
 _I—I don't know,_ Zhou Mi says.  
  
Kyuhyun stares at him in shock. Zhou Mi looks down. _I—I had to find you._  
  
 _You. You're an idiot,_ Kyuhyun says.  
  
Zhou Mi lifts his head. _You're welcome._  
  
\--  
  
Zhou Mi refuses to admit that he's starving. Kyuhyun has no such qualms.  
  
He heads towards the remains of a building without hesitation, ignoring Zhou Mi's cries of _dangerous_ and _structural instability_.   
  
and then Kyuhyun finds nommables to nom  
  
\--  
  
The pillar reads _명동, Myeong-dong, 明洞._ The station is underground and, therefore, mostly intact; but dark, and therefore unknown. Kyuhyun isn't willing to go much further in.  
  
 _Well at least we know where we are,_ Zhou Mi says.  
  
 _So what?_ Kyuhyun says. _It's the same everywhere._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two days after a nuclear blast would be enough time for most of the nuclear fallout to settle to a non-lethal level, even at ground zero. Myeongdong is a neighborhood in Seoul. As proof that fanfiction is really just wish fulfillment, I blew the whole world up just so bbKyu could get some sleep ;_;. This was a completely random gift for LJ user y0naki_x3 from her [kacts](http://kacts.livejournal.com/)' master list, but I got bored/frustrated writing it because I had to do so much research and I had so many plot holes, so I ended up scrapping this and writing [another post-apocalyptic AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/275541) instead.


End file.
